“It’s time for me to ‘get low.’” This is one of the most memorable lines from Robert Duval, one of my favorite actors. Portraying a man who walked up to a funeral home, Duval asked the funeral director to furnish a funeral for him while he was still alive. He wanted to hear what people had to say. The character knew he was close to death, so with a wad of cash, he asked the director to provide his funeral service.
We don’t really know, do we, when we will go? A good friend recounted to me this week that doctors told him he was not going to make it. The fact that he told me the story means he survived. What would we do if today were our last day? What would we say? To whom would we say it? Good questions! My friend Uncle Bill Robbins suggested three sentences for his own obituary. “He was born. He lived. He died.” Thankfully, his family had more to say for his funeral today.
In this last letter to his protégé Timothy, Paul says the time for his departure is at hand. It was time for him to “go higher.” Paul put his life and ours in perspective in these verses. In his autobiographical epitaph, Paul offered his own three sentences. “I have fought the good fight.” Paul was not only saying he had fought well, but that he had fought the correct battle. Some battles are not worth fighting. Paul wrestled not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil. “I have finished the race.” The writer of Hebrews says that each of us has our own race marked out for us. You don’t have to run my race, nor do I have to run yours. “I have kept the faith.” My friend Bill told me that his wife Carol’s faith never wavered. Paul was like that. I want to be like that.
What do we believe with unwavering faith? We believe that God has a crown of righteousness in store for us, and not only for us but also for all who have longed for Christ’s appearing. Is that you? If Jesus showed up now, would we want to push the pause button and ask for more time? All our treasure is in heaven. Jesus is everything to us. In Christ alone, our joy is found. Do you long for Jesus to appear? I confess I do. It is time for us to go higher, to meet him in the air, then to receive our dwelling places in the heavenly city as it descends to the new earth. When God is ready, I am ready.
A physician in a small town had a sign below his second floor office. It gave his name and said, “Office upstairs.” Someone transplanted it to the cemetery beside his tombstone. “Dr. Jones. Office upstairs.” If we stay ready, we will never have to get ready, to go higher.
